Indian biotech education garners Rs 1,110 crore, grows 8.5%

The biotechnology education market in India picked up pace in 2012 and recorded 8.5 percent growth. The estimated market stands at `1,110 crore for 2012 as against `1,020 crore recorded in 2011. This growth is attributed to the opening of biotech departments

The education market witnessed a drop last year due to fall in the number of students opting for biotechnology courses at the graduation level, which has resulted in closing down of colleges and institutes. In the last couple of years, the student community has realized the need to take up higher studies-post graduation and PhDs-if they are keen to enter the industry. Owing to the change in the mindset of students, the education market in private sector witnessed investments in expanding the research labs, so as to take up more research students opting for PhDs. The education sector mainly comprises of fees collected from the students.

In all, 43 institutes (14 public and 29 private) which are offering BTech, MSc/MTech, PhD courses in biotechnology from nine states have participated in the 9th BioSpectrum Top 20 Biotech Schools Survey 2013. Some of the prominent universities and institutes in the public domain such as MS Baroda University (Vadodara), University of Pune, (Pune), Anna University (Chennai), University of Jammu, Jamia Millia Islamia University, Madurai Kamaraj University (Madurai) and University of Kashmir (Srinagar), Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (Coimbatore), Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology (Thiruvananthpuram), and Burdwan University could not participate in this survey as the management was pre-occupied with the departmental activities. Similarly, some of the private institutes such as Manipal Life Science Center, TERI University, SRM University, Loyola College, and Chandigarh College of Technology too could not participate in this year's survey.

The 43 institutes which participated in 2013 survey, received over 80,000 applications for the biotechnology courses ranging from under-graduate to doctoral studies in 2012-13. These institutes have enroled close to 4,000 fresh students during the academic year 2012-13. In all 10,000 students have been studying in these institutes for graduate and post-graduate courses.